Questions on humidity and age

[Joe S]

Hey folks. We have a little leopard and its maybe 1.5 years old or so. We currently have him set up in the closed chamber style enclosure and have noticed his pyramiding come to a massive slow down and has started to grow much smoother. We plan to keep him out side this year but we still are getting some low temps at night. Nothing is stable here yet.

So for the time being we have decided to upgrade it's enclosure to a 8'x3' enclosure. Should we continue with the close chamber style set up? I figure it would mean building a top to the enclosure as I cannot think of any other way to really trap the heat and humidity in there. It was a box pond I made for some aquatic turtles that's now being repurposed.

So my question is. Is there an ideal age or size when we can allow the top to be open ? I would like to do the best by him in terms of growing smoothly. So I am just curious if we should continue the closed chamber for a while longer. Thanks.

 

[Levi the Leopard]

Many of us have found that Leopards need at least moderate humidity even into adult sizes.

If your Leopard is going to be housed indoors under hot, drying light bulbs then higher humidity helps to combat that. So, I suggest you stick with a closed chamber any time your tort is housed indoors. Once he makes the move outside full time, I'd still offer moderate humidity in the heated tort house.

 

[Joe S]

Certainly. I'm sure it can be done. My basement stays at an ambient 60% humidity which helps a little but the lights do dry things out. Thanks!

 

[Dizisdalife]

I agree with Heather. Although I don't keep Leopards, my 4 year old sulcata benefits from moderate humidity (65%) in his night box. This time of year he spends approximately 15 hours a day in the "night box".

 

[Joe S]

Alright. I'm sure I can make it work out with a little tinkering.

 

[jshaw9_]

I had a thread on this, I'll have a look, what was said was when they reach around 10-12 inch in length it is possible to allow humidity to drop slightly. More to do with size than age. Mine is 12.5inch and around 65-77% humidity which I intend to keep up until it grows a bit bigger.